Moreover, in response to question regarding which "most
egregious aspects of the NAFTA accord" he wants to look at as a
first priority when discussing a new deal with Mexico, he said
one thing he wants to focus on is currency.

"I think partly the decline in the peso was due to worry
about renegotiation of NAFTA, but I think we also need to think
about some other mechanisms for making the peso/dollar exchange
rate a bit more stable," he told CNBC.

He futher explained in greater detail later on in the
interview:

"Well, at the end of the day, currency is much more in the
province of the Department of Treasury and the Federal Reserve
Bank than it is of Commerce. But think back to when there was a
big Mexican crisis. Bob Rueben was then the Treasury Secretary.
He put in place some lines of credit running back and forth
between the central banks to give them the mechanism for dealing
with it. So there are mechanisms, whether it's that one or
something else, that could be used as a part of an overall
package to try to stabilize things.

There are lots of problems with the weak peso for Mexico.
We talked about the way it helps in terms of their manufacturing
competitiveness. But Mexican imports an awful lot of its food. In
fact, I believe they're the biggest importer of corn from the
United States. So a weak peso hurts the average Mexican and
certainly hurts the poor Mexican to a very, very substantial
degree because most food products are ultimately dollar
denominated."

Effectively, when the greenback strengthens against the
peso (or the peso weakens against the dollar), then goods and
services in the US become more expensive for Mexicans. Therefore,
they might end up buying less of those American-made goods and
services going forward, which is bad for American
producers.

"With regards to Mexico specifically, Mr. Ross took an
especially conciliatory line," Neil Shearing, chief
emerging markest economist at Capital Economics, wrote in
commentary after the interview. "A more stable (and stronger)
peso is of course in the interests of the Trump administration as
the more the currency weakens, the cheaper Mexico's exports
become."

"And it may be the case that the 6% drop in the currency
against the dollar since the US election (and before today's
comments) had started to spook some US officials," he
added. "Either way, this is clearly what's driving the jump
[Friday] morning."

The peso saw a tumultuous autumn and ended up
being one of the bigmarket casualtiesof the 2016 election.
It crashed by about 20% after President Donald Trump won the
election.

However, it has been on the uptick in 2017. In
mid-February, it pushed to the strongest level against the
greenback since the day after Trump's election after
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Mexican
officials.

Back during his confirmation hearing, Ross said that
NAFTAwould be an early priorityfor his
department. He said he was "pro-trade," but only as long as it is
"sensible trade."